Presidential Visits

Presidents of the United States visit many states during their tenures. Maine is no exception.

President Kennedy at the wheel of the US Coast Guard Yacht “Manitou,. Boothbay Harbor, August 12, 1962

On July 3, 1847 James K. Polk visited Augusta, the first U.S. President to visit Maine.

In 1841, recently elected President William Henry Harrison visited Bath and the Clark and Sewall shipyard, where he witnessed the launch of the Rappahannock, at the time the largest vessel in the world.

On August 12, 1873 President Ulysses S. Grant arrived in Augusta by train for a 3-day visit with U.S. Speaker of the House, James G. Blaine.

President Dwight D. Eisenhower vacationed at the Parmachenee Camps in Lynchtown Township on June, 25 1955, followed by a visit to Skowhegan on June 27th.

On August 12, 1962 President John F. Kennedy vacationed in Maine, at the wheel of the US Coast Guard Yacht Manitou near Boothbay Harbor. On September 2, 1960 he was the first Democratic presidential candidate since 1932 to visit Bangor. He then traveled to Presque Isle in northern Maine and Portland in the south. Kennedy was the first President to visit the University of Maine, where he delivered a foreign policy address in Orono on October 19, 1963, just thirty-four days before his assassination.

President Jimmy Carter at the Bangor Auditorium on February 18, 1978

In 1976, President Jimmy Carter participated in a “town hall” meeting in Bangor at the Bangor Auditorium on February 18, 1978.